The web is the preferred channel for increasing numbers of people who want instant access to information and services whenever it suits them. 72% of searches for products and services are now carried out online, it is the #1 research tool for businesses and half the UK population now go online at least once a day. On a single day in July 2010 Britons spent an eye watering £5 billion online and annual spending on the web is set to grow by 56% to £35 billion in the UK over the next four years (a year on year increase of 12%). Whether you love or loathe the internet, it is an inescapable fact that any small business without an effective web promotion strategy in this day and age is at a serious competitive disadvantage.

Your website is the powerhouse of your online marketing and as a small business owner the time and money spent developing your website will probably represent one of the most significant marketing investments you ever make.

But the sad fact is that 95% of websites fail to get traffic let alone leads and sales. It is simply not the case that “if you build it, they will come”. That is why before investing in a new website you need to have a clear web promotion strategy.

This involves:

Setting measurable objectives
Prioritising the actions that are going to deliver most value for your business
Establishing design requirements from a customer perspective
Carrying out keyword analysis to identify the key search terms that will drive traffic to your website
Building a site structure with search engine optimisation in mind
Analysing your online competition to determine how well positioned you are to compete effectively in your online marketplace
Developing a compelling and distinctive online value proposition that will grab visitors’ attention and make you stand out from the crowd.
Putting together a blueprint for engaging, relevant and high quality content.

Only when all of these elements are in place will you be ready to begin developing your website. Once the site is built you should then configure web analytics and learn how to use the tools and reports to monitor your web performance. Then you will have a way of checking that you are on track to achieve the objectives you set at the beginning and adjust your strategy as you go along.

If you follow this process you should ensure that your website is one of the 5% that are successful in attracting targeted traffic and converting your visitors to warm leads and customers.

Jan Willis is Director of WOW Consulting, an Essex online marketing and website design company specialising in helping small businesses increase their visibility on the web and generate more traffic and leads.

There are few moments in life more exciting or more beautiful than that moment when two people decide to spend the rest their lives together. And when you design your own engagement rings as a keepsake token of that special moment, you’re creating a memory that will last a lifetime.

Designing your own engagement rings is a whole lot easier than you might initially think. In today’s world, many people are looking for more creative ways to express their love and devotion to another and, even though an engagement ring is certainly a very traditional token of this intent, when you design it yourself it adds a certain sentimental twist to the gesture. Not only that, but designing your own engagement ring is a good way to ensure uniqueness, as well as a good fit with her personal style. Now, you might be thinking, but I’m not a jeweler! I can’t design custom jewelry! But here’s the good news…you don’t have to have a high level of expertise or even fashion sense to design great diamond rings. You simply have to be able to choose and put together the elements you like from a selection of loose diamonds and ring settings. Here’s how the process of designing your own engagement rings works:

Step 1: Choose a Diamond
You will be presented with an array of loose diamonds from which to choose for your solitaire. Loose diamonds come in all shapes and sizes, and your search will be made infinitely easier if you take a moment to filter your diamond criteria by cut, carat, color and clarity. If you like, you can also filter your diamond search results by price, ensuring that you are only seeing the loose diamonds that fit into your specified budget.

Step 2: Choose a Setting
You’ve found the perfect diamond solitaire. Now, it’s time to choose a setting. Yellow gold, white gold and platinum are typical metal choices for the settings on diamond rings. Beyond that, a four- or six-prong arrangement will be recommended for securing the stone itself. And just like that, you’re almost done. Almost…

Step 3: Making it Your Own with Diamond Accents
That’s all it takes to put together beautiful diamond rings, but if you really want to dazzle her with a unique and distinctive piece of jewelry of your own design, then you need to take the process just one step further. Diamond accents add that extra touch of class and style that set custom engagement rings apart from the crowd; a token of your love that she’ll look upon fondly every day from this moment on.

It’s easy to design your own engagement rings and, when you see the look of joy and amazement on her face, you’ll know – without a doubt – that it was worth the extra effort involved in designing her ring yourself.

Are you a business owner using the internet? If you are then you must understand why it is vital to have a marketing strategy online in order to get to the success you have always dreamed of.

When your business is online the only way for people to find you is for you to market that business. Traffic is the key to being successful online with any business.

That is the main reason that a marketing strategy online is so vital to your business. If people can’t find your website then they can’t spend their money with you.

You want to make money right? Of course you do and that is another reason why a advertising strategy is so imperative.

When you don’t market your business online you will not make any money. That is why you have to have an effective strategy that will bring traffic to your business so you can make that money.

You want to take the time to do your research and learn about one effective marketing strategy at a time. There are many different strategies that can be used and you definitely want to use more than one of them.

You just want to remember that it is important to learn them one at a time so you can put them into action before adding another one. That way you have one strategy working to bring traffic to your site while learning another one.

Do this until you have 5 to 7 different strategies working at all times to bring you traffic. Here are a few tactics you want to take time to learn and use for promoting any business on the internet.

Article marketing

Social networks

Blogging

Forum marketing

PPC or Pay Per Click

There are so many others that can be used also and you can even combine them to get the most traffic. Many successful internet marketers use both paid and free advertising to drive high traffic numbers and make more sales.

For example, you can add article marketing and blogging together to get the most traffic. You could also do pay per click advertising and SEO your keywords in new web pages or blog posts.

The thing to remember is that a marketing strategy is the only way you can be successful with any business. Don’t forget this and not build your own promotion strategy because this is the sure way that you can fail with any internet business.

A good online marketing strategy is the key to finding the success you have always wanted. Without it, you will always struggle to build a business that won’t be going anywhere.